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The First Two Weeks: Eric Hosmer And The Kansas City Royals

The first two weeks in the career of Eric Hosmer has not refuted the idea that he could be one of the next great players in Major League Baseball in the foreseeable future. Through his first 13 games he is hitting .314/.368/.588 with three homeruns, three doubles, and one triple. Although his 13 strikeouts in just 51 at-bats does need to be improved, there is no question that Hosmer is in his element and bringing him up was the right decision.

The excitement that was built around Hosmer being called up to the Royals was front-page news and something that everyone in Kansas City was talking about. There were 9k walk-up tickets sold to his debut against the Oakland Athletics on May 6th and the news was even trending on Twitter. With that much publicity surrounding a 21-year old kid making his debut on an overacheiving team that hasn't seen a lot of recent success, there were all of the makings for a let-down. Although the team has won just 5 of those 13 games it was not because of Hosmer's play on the field and he has been anything but a let-down.

His OPS is currently .956 which would put him 4th in the American League. The biggest hurdle that's facing Hosmer is that teams will eventually get enough information to build a scouting report against him based on his Major League at-bats and he will be forced to make adjustments. There is no reason to think that Hosmer won't be able to do this as he has already shown a patience and maturity well-beyond that of an average rookie being called up to the big leagues. It will make a difference in the impact that this Royals' team can make as they try to sustain this early success and show that they are in this for the long haul and not just a few good weeks to start the season.

Either way Hosmer has brought some excitement to this team during his first two weeks and hopefully his continued-development can help this franchise become relevant once again.